PM in Iraq for day-long visit
19 May 2007
Tony Blair spent Saturday in Iraq where he said there were "real signs of progress" despite the security situation.
After landing in Baghdad to meet Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, he told reporters:
"The question is, what are we going to do in the face of these attacks?
"The answer is, we don't give in to them. The very purpose of the attacks, the suicide bombs, the mortars aimed in here, is so that you will carry nothing but that on your news and won't actually talk about the progress that's happening here."
Following talks with Iraq's political leaders, the Prime Minister said:
"We agreed that what was required was a real sense of an agreement that brought everyone together for the way forward.
"We also agreed it was important not just that that idea of a national compact for the country was agreed here inside Iraq but that at the same time it was agreed it should be adhered to by the neighbouring countries."
The PM later travelled to Basra where he addressed hundreds of troops at the British HQ, thanking them for their "important" efforts.
"... this will be I suppose my last chance to say thank you for the work that you have done here, and try to say something through that to also people back in our own country and the media people who are here today.
"Because sometimes the impression is given of everything being completely negative, but actually what you have been doing here in these last few months has just been absolutely remarkable."
Image copyright: Reuters
